Wheatgrass Versus Disease & Premature Aging?

Free Radicals & Anti Oxidants, What are they & How do they Act?

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

QUOTE: Moses Gomberg (1866-1947), the founder of radical chemistry. Radicals (often referred to as free radicals) are atoms, molecules, or ions with unpaired electrons on an open shell configuration. Free radicals may have positive, negative, or zero charge. With some exceptions, the unpaired electrons cause radicals to be highly chemically reactive. Radicals, if allowed to run free in the body, are believed to be involved in degenerative diseases, senescence (the aging process), and cancers. UNQUOTE.

Free radicals, also known simply as radicals, are organic molecules responsible for aging, tissue damage, and possibly some diseases. These molecules are very unstable, therefore they look to bond with other molecules, destroying their health and further continuing the damaging process. Antioxidants, present in many foods, are molecules that prevent free radicals from harming healthy tissue.

An apple slice turns brown. Fish becomes rancid. A cut on your skin is raw and inflamed. All of these result from a natural process called oxidation. It happens to all cells in nature, including the ones in your body.

To help your body protect itself from the rigors of oxidation, Mother Nature provides thousands of different antioxidants in various amounts in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes. When your body needs to put up its best defense, especially true in today's environment, antioxidants are crucial to your health.

How Antioxidants Help Prevent Oxidation

As oxygen interacts with cells of any type - an apple slice or, in your body, the cells lining your lungs or in a cut on your skin -- oxidation occurs. This produces some type of change in those cells. They may die, such as with rotting fruit. In the case of cut skin, dead cells are replaced in time by fresh, new cells, resulting in a healed cut.

This birth and death of cells in the body goes on continuously, 24 hours a day. It is a process that is necessary to keep the body healthy. "Oxidation is a very natural process that happens during normal cellular functions," researcher Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston, tells WebMD.

Yet there is a downside. "While the body metabolizes oxygen very efficiently, 1% or 2% of cells will get damaged in the process and turn into free radicals," he says.

"Free radicals" is a term often used to describe damaged cells that can be problematic. They are "free" because they are missing a critical molecule, which sends them on a rampage to pair with another molecule. "These molecules will rob any molecule to quench that need," Blumberg says.

The Danger of Free Radicals

When free radicals are on the attack, they don't just kill cells to acquire their missing molecule. "If free radicals simply killed a cell, it wouldn't be so badÃ¢€Â¦ the body could just regenerate another one," he says. "The problem is, free radicals often injure the cell, damaging the DNA, which creates the seed for disease."

When a cell's DNA changes, the cell becomes mutated. It grows abnormally and reproduces abnormally -- and quickly.

Normal cell functions produce a small percentage of free radicals, much like a car engine that emits fumes. But those free radicals are generally not a big problem. They are kept under control by antioxidants that the body produces naturally, Blumberg explains.

External toxins, especially cigarette smoke and air pollution, are "free radical generators," he says. "Cigarette smoke is a huge source of free radicals." In fact, our food and water also harbor free radicals in the form of pesticides and other toxins. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol also triggers substantial free radical production.

WHEATGRASS JUICE FACTS:

Naturally grown Wheatgrass juice contains enormous amounts of Chlorophyll. Chlorophyll has powerful anti-oxidant properties. It can strip out free radicals, which are a damaging by-product of metabolism. Free radicals encourage an acidic cell environment, contribute to the ageing process and have been implicated in the development of some serious diseases including Cancer. Anti-oxidant activity by wheatgrass 'mops up' the free radicals and restores the chemical balance of cells.